Matteo Menapace

pro-Palestinian watermelon symbol in the shape of Israel plus Palestine. The SdJ jury regarded this as an "intolerable" statement denying a right of the state of Israel to exist ("unerträglich" in the German original). They deemed Menapace an undesirable person at their future events. In a response to this, Matteo didn't directly address his stance on whether the state of Israel has a right to exist. Instead, he made the general statement that "no human being or group of people should be erased because of their ethnicity, religion or nationality." He also stated his view that "debating the shape of the sticker and pushing for an antisemitic interpretation is a distraction" from the plight of the Palestinian people. Read the SdJ statement and Menapace's response.